Roller press for the briquetting of ore, coal or similar material



April 18, 1961 J. B. DECKER 2,979,799

ROLLER PRESS FOR THE BRIQUETTING OF ORE, COAL OR SIMILAR MATERIAL Filed Feb. 20, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVEN TOR.

April 18, 1961 J. B. DECKER 2,979,799

ROLLER PRESS FOR THE BRIQUETTING OF oRE, COAL 0R SIMILAR MATERIAL Filed Feb. 20, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVEN TOR.

Aprll 18, 1961 J, DECKER 2,979,799

ROLLER PRESS FOR THE BRIQUETTING OF ORE, COAL OR SIMILAR MATERIAL Filed Feb. 20, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 MWAZJMJ April 18, 1961 J. B. DECKER ROLLER PRESS FOR THE BRIQUETTING OF ORE, COAL OR SIMILAR MATERIAL Filed Feb. 20, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Y [H I i. I I 38 .i

M M i 35 y j F/6.4 )H H i 42 1 I H i 1 A n m "u H! {T 43 40 4 l H. II 4 5:

INVENTOR.

2,979,799 COAL 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 P 1961 J. B. DECKER ROLLER PRESS FOR THE BRIQUETTING 0F ORE 0R SIMILAR MATERIAL Filed Feb. 20, 1957 INVENTOR.

United States Patent ROLLER PRESS FOR THE BRIQUE'ITING OF ORE, COAL 0R SIMILAR MATERIAL Johannes Bernhard Decker. Koln-Rath, Germany, as-

signor to Klockzzer-Humboldt-Deutz Aktiengesellschaft, Koln-Dentz, Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed Feb. 20, 1957, Ser. No. 641,369

Claims priority, application Germany Feb. 23, 1956 15 Claims. (Cl. 2577) In the known roller-type briquetting presses, the material to be briquetted is supplied in loose, comminuted condition directly between the rollers of the press. The briquettes made in this manner have relatively slight strength so that great friction losses occur during further handling. To increase the strength of the briquettes, it has been proposed to again comminute the briquettes after their first passage through the press and to then repeat the briquetting operation. The first passage through the press then results in some pre-compacting of the material, and the second passage serves for obtaining the desired shape of the briquettes. It is possible in this manner to produce briquettes of great strength, but the considerable work required for the repeated briquetting and the intermediate cornminuting operations constitute a notable disadvantage.

' It is an object of the invention to avoid such disadvantages and to accomplish, in a simple manner, an effective de-aeration and pro-compression of the briquetting""material and to supply this material to the press so as to secure the production of briquettes of great strength in a single pressing operation.

To this end, and in accordance with a feature of my invention, I provide a roller-type briquetting press with an opposed pair of rollers rotating in opposite directions about their respective axes and with a distributor box for the material to be briquetted. The box is mounted above the rollers and its bottom has an opening, or openings, substantially centered above and between each pair of rollers. The distributor box is provided with an oscillating mounting and is connected to an oscillation generator which imparts to the box mainly vertical oscillations of relatively high frequency. These features have a further advantage in that they permit the increasing of the operating speed of the rollers, and thus the output of the briquetting press.

The fore oing and other more specific objects, advantages and features will be apparent from the preferred embodiment of the invention shown in the accompanying drawings and described hereinafter. In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side view of the roller-type briquetting press;

Fig. 2 is a cross section along the line IIi-Hin Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross section along the line III-III in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 shows a detail of the distributor box of Fig. 1 on enlarged scale. I

Fig. 5 is a cross section along line VV in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 shows a detail of Fig. 5 along the section line Vl-Vl.

Fig. 7 shows a detail, partiaily in section, of the vibrator and its mounting. a

The fundamental design of the roller-type briquetting press is apparent from Figs. 1 to 3. A machine frame, consisting essentially of two lateralwalls 1 and 2, is mounted on a foundation 3, being connected therewith by means of anchor bolts (not illustrated). Each of the two side walls 1 and 2, as shown in Fig. 2, has the shapev of an H in profile and is provided with re-e nforcingwebs ICE shafts 11, 3.2 and 13. The bearings are designed as slide bearings, for adjustment purposes, and each comprises a rectangular blockwith inserted or inner shells or rings 14 and 15' (Fig. 2) of bearing metal. The cylindrical shafts have respective portions of diiferent diameters so that they cannot become displaced in the axial direction. A spur gear 15 (Fig. 3) and a roller 17 are mounted on shaft 11 between its two bearings 8. The shaft 12 (Fig. 2) carries a spur gear 16 and a roller 18 between two bearings 9. Each roller is formed of a strong wheel body and a ring 63 of material resistive to abrasive wear, the ring 63 being shrunk onto the wheel body. As shown in Figs. 1 and 3 the ring 63 is provided with the usual mold forming depressions at 630. The depressions on the two rollers jointly form the briquette. The two spur gears 15 and 16 mesh with each other as apparent from Fig. 3. Mounted on shaft 13 is a pinion gear 19 meshing with the gear 16. Mounted on one of the outer ends of shaft 13 is a clutch 20 for connecting the shaft with a drive gear and a drive motor (not illustrated).

The rectangular bearing blocks 8, 9 and It) are kept at a different spacing from one another by means of spacer structures 21 to 25. These spacer structures as well as the shafts 11, 12 and 13 are covered from above by means of head pieces 26 and 27 (Fig. 3). The two outermost spacer structures 21 and 25 are secured from displacement in the longitudinal direction by means of wedges 28 and 29. The spacer structures are further connected with the side walls 1 and 2 on one hand and with the head pieces 26 and 27 on the other hand by means of screws which are rep-resented in Fig. l by broken line 30. In order to compensate for wear at the surface of the rollers, several spacer plates 31 are inserted between the bearing 8 and the spacer structure 23 as may be desirable during the operation of the machine from time to time. The same number of spacer sheets 31 are provided at each of the two side walls. As shown, simplified, in

Fig. 1, a wedge 32 is provided to tension the bearings as *-ards 33 and 34 which carry a distributor box 35. The

distributor box has a feed opening 36 on its top for the supply of the material to be briquetted. The box is further connected with a driving means 37, comprising an electric gear-type motor. The drive is connected with a vertical shaft 38 whose lower end carries a double armed stirrer 39. The stirrer is located closely above the bottom 40 of the distributor box. As shown in Figs. 4 to 6, the bottom 40 of the distributor box is a flat plate of circular shape which is reinforced on its lower side by webs 41, and by means of a peripheral rim portion or flange 42. The lower side of the rim portion 42' is joined to the planar plate 40 and widens upwardly, providing a conical flange surrounding the lower end of the distributor box 35. A preferably rectangular opening '43 is provided in bottom 46. A short conduit 44 extends downwardly from the opening 43 and opens into a chute 45 (Fig. 2). The width of the chute corresponds to or is slightly greater than the Width of the appertaining rollers so that a uniform distribution of the ends of plates 46 and 47 lie opposite each other and n tion.

follows.

i 3 elastic body 48 of rubber is disposed between them and secured in position by bolts and nuts 49, 50. The bolts are secured in the rubber. There is no metallic connection between plates 46 and 47. The rubber springs 48, as apparent from Fig. 6, are circular in cross section. However, a substantially rectangular cross section of the rubber springs is also of advantage in some cases. Mounted on the lower side of bottom plate 40 and in the center thereof is an electromagnetic vibrator 51. This vibrator is designed as follows. Located within a housing, firmly joined with the bottom 40, is a movable magnetic member. This member is held on both sides by two respective springs (not shown) and thus is capable of oscillation, the axes of the two respective springs being coincident with the preferred direction of oscillation. Mounted on the magnetic part are two mag- -net cores which are surrounded by two respective magnet coils. The magnet cores are'located as closely as possible to an armature which is connected with the housing of the vibrator, but the cores are sufficiently spaced from the housingso that an oscillating movement of the magnetic part is not impeded. If alternating current, for instance 50 cycles per second, is supplied to the magnetcoils by means of electric supply leads (not illustrated), then the magnet cores and thus the magnetic part are'alternately attracted to the armature, thus producingan oscillating motion of 6000 oscillations per minutel In certain cases, however, it is also advantageous to operate the vibrator with a lower oscillation frequency, for instance at 3000 oscillations per minute. For this purpose, a simple rectifier may be connected ahead of the vibrator so that the electric current can flow in only one direction through the vibrator with the result that the vibrating frequency is reduced to half of the alternating-current value. The control of the electromagnetic vibrator is effected by'an additional control device, such as a rheostat controlling the current (not illustrated). This device permits a stepless regulation of the oscillating amplitude, namely from 0 mm. to about 2 mm. Additional weights may be mounted on the magnet part in order to increase the mass of the oscillating system and hence also the amplitude. The frequency of the vibrator can also be reduced stepwise by changing the current frequency.

The opening 43 inthe bottom of the distributor box can be closed partly or entirely by means of a slider 52 (Fig. 1) operable from the side of the machine, so that,.if desired, little or no material will drop into the chute 45. The chute 45 has a rectangular cross sec- Its two sidewalls 53 and 54 have their lower ends so designed that they straddle'the two rollers 17 and 18 laterally and protrude downwardly a sufficient extent to laterally seal the wedge-shape space 55 in the center above the two rollers 17 and 18. The wall56 of chute 45 is stationary and terminates closely above the roller 18. The opposite wall 57, however, is pivoted at 58 near its upper end and can be shifted or tilted in controlled degree toward the roller 18, by means of a rod 59 and a hand wheel 60. The rod 59 is pivotally linked with the wall 57 and is supported on its other end by a holder 61. V

The operation of the above-described machine is as The material to be briquetted, which if desired may be mixed with a suitable binding substance and may be preheated by means of steam,'is fed into the distributor box 35 through the opening 36. The' electromagnet vibrator, which is capable of producing accelerations up to about six times gravity acceleration (6 g) imparts predominantly vertical oscillations to the bottom of the distributor box. In this manner the material within the distributor box is strongly shaken, de-' aerated, and is pre-densified to a very large extent. The briquetting material thus pre-compacted is introduced or passes between the two rollers 17, 18 and ispressed into briquettes of oval shape, for example. The pressed briquettes drop out of the briquetting press through the opening 62 in foundation 3. Beneath the foundation, the finished briquettes can be separated from slight unavoidable amounts of non-briquetted material, the separation being effected by means of a, screening device of conventional type. The briquettes canbe conveyed by means of a conveyor belt away from the screening device, whereas the non-briquetted material is returned into the distributor box of the briquetting press. The precompacting can be modified by varying the oscillation frequency of the electromagnetic vibrator in accordance with any desired requirements. Generally, the oscillation frequency is about 3000 oscillations per minute and the amplitude stroke of the bottom'plate 40 is between about 0.5 mm. and about 1.3 mm. However, the pre-compacting can be further increased by adjusting the wall 57 toward the roller 18 as far as possible, so that the briquetting material does not drop freely through the shaft 45 but is subjected in the shaft to an additional amount of compacting, because it is subjected to the pressure of the material located above.

The rubber springs 48 serve a double purpose. They operate as springs for the oscillatory motion of the bottom 40 relative to the distributor box the resulting stresses in'the rubber bodies being shearing stresses. The rubber springs also serve to receive and convey the forces which are produced by the rotating'movement of the double arm 39 and which attempt to entrain or carry along the bottom 40. For the latter purpose, the vertical plates 46 and 47 are preferably so arranged that these forces press the rubber springs in compression. If

desired, five or more rubber springs may be distributed over the periphery instead of the four rubber springs ilof springs, relative to the stationary machine frame.

In the above-described embodiments, the vibration generator is of the electromagnetic type. Instead of an electromagnetic vibrator, other types of oscillation generators, such as for instance purely mechanical oscillators, are applicable. Of advantage for instance is a known oscillation generator which operates with two unbalanced weights that rotate in mutually opposed directions. The two unbalanced Weights are mounted on two shafts driven in respectively opposing directions. The shafts are iournalled on the vibratorily mounted machine portion by means of the double arm 39 through the opening 43 so that the horizontal force components of the unbalanced forces in the horizontaldirection counteract and compensate each other, whereas the vertical components of the imbalance forces are fully-effective and produce vertical oscillations of the machine portion. This makes it possible in a simple manner to vary the frequency of oscillations to any desired amount, for instance so that the machine can operate between about 1000 or 1500 oscillations per minute. i

In some cases it is of further advantage to substitute for the double arm39 a different mechanical device situated in the distributor box or in the shaft 45, which device presses the briquetting materialdownwardly, but toward and between the rollers.

The invention is analogously applicable to roller-type briquetting presses equipped with more than two rollers, and'to presses the rollers of which are provided with three, or more or less, peripheral rows of molds. Each set of rollers can be equipped with an individual box 35 and oscillator 51, or a tingle box and oscillator can feed all of the sets.

As mentioned above, the briquetting material, prior to charging it into the distributor box, may be mixed with a binding agent, such as pitch or tar. Another advantage of the invention is the fact that, by virtue of the pre-compacting, the quantity of the binding agent can be considerably reduced.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art, upon a study of this disclosure, that our invention permits of various modifications with respect to design and arrangement of the machine components, and hence may be embodied in machines other than the one particularly illustrated and described herein, without departing from the essential features of our invention, and within the scope of the claims annexed hereto.

As shown in Fig. 7 the above described vibrator 51 comprises a housing 64 in which a movable magnetic member 65 is mounted between two pairs of springs 66. This member 65 carries two magnet coils 67 with appertaining current supply springs 68, as well as two magnet cores 72 which terminate with slight clearance in front of an iron armature 69 so as to form an air gap 7 9 together therewith. When energizing the vibrator by alternating current, the magnetic member 65 is placed into vertical oscillations. These are transmitted through the springs 66 to the housing 64 and plate 71 and thence to the above detailed bottom plate 40.

I claim:

1. In a press for briquetting ore, coal, and similar materials, pressing means comprising two press rollers, briquette-forming depressions on said pressing means, the rollers turning about their axes in opposite directions, the roller surfaces moving downwardly in the region where they come together, a distributor box to distribute material to be briquetted between the rollers above the place where they come together, the distributor box having an upper part and also having a bottom plate on which the material is supported, the bottom plate being vibratable to and from the upper part means to vibrate said plate upwardly and downwardly, the distributor box having an outlet for the material leading to said region, a rotary stirrer above the plate, effective to force the material to the outlet, the upper part of the box having a number of substantially vertical fastening plates attached thereto, substantially vertical fastening plates carrying the bottom plate, resilient compressible means between and connecting respective fastening plates of the upperpart with respective fastening plates of the bottom plate, whereby the bottom plate is resiliently suspended from the upper part.

2. The apparatus defined in claim 1 in which the resilient means comprise rubber bodies.

3. In a press for briquetting ore, coal, and similar materials, pressing means comprising two press rollers, briquette-forming depressions on said pressing means, the rollers turning about their axes in opposite directions, the roher surfaces moving downwardly where they come together, distributor means mounted above the rollers to distribute material to be briquetted between the rollers above the place where they come together, the distributor means comprising a plate on which the material is supported, said plate being resiliently supported for oscillation and being provided with an opening and conduit means directed towards said place where the rollers come together for passing said material thereto, stirring means mounted above said plate for driving said material to said opening, and means to vibrate said plate in a direction substantially upward and downward only and with a force and acceleration such as to etiect a pro-compression and de-aeration of the material, said means to vibrate being suspended from the center or" the underside of the plate.

4. In a press for briquetting ore, coal, and similar materials, pressing means comprising two press rollers, briquette-forming depressions on said pressing means, the rollers turning about their axes in opposite directions, the roller surfaces moving downwardly where they come together, a distributor box to distribute material to be briquetted between the rollers above the region where they come together, the distributor box having an upper stationary part and also having a bottom plate structure on which the material is supported, the bottom plate structure being resiliently mounted for vertical oscillation relative to the upper part, means to vibrate said plate structure essentially upwardly and downwardly for precompacting said material, the bottom plate structure comprising a bottom plate and a rim flange carried thereon, the flange extending upwardly and overlapping the lower part of the box, means forming an opening in said bottom plate and disposed above said region for feeding the initially compressed material from said plate into said region, and stirring means mounted above said plate for driving said material to said opening.

5. in a press for briquetting ore, coal, and similar materials, pressing means comprising two press rollers, briquette-forming depressions on said pressing means, the rollers turning about their axes in opposite directions, the roller surfaces moving downwardly where they come together, a distributor box to distribute material to be briquetted between the rollers above the region where they come together, the distributor box having an upper part and also having a bottom plate on which the material is received, the bottom plate being resiliently mounted for vertical oscillation relative to said upper part, means to vibrate said plate upwardly and downwardly, the bottom plate having an exit opening for the material, stirring means mounted above said plate for moving said material to said opening, a stationary vertical chute of rectangular cross section communicating with the opening and extending downward toward the rollers, the chute having two opposite walls projecting downwardly in close proximity to the sides of the rollers, one of the other two walls being pivoted, and means to swing the lower part of said one wall toward the other and to adjust it in position.

6. In a press for briquetting ore, coal, and similar materials, pressing means comprising two press rollers, briquette-forming depressions on said pressing means, the rollers turning about their axes in opposite directions, the roller surfaces moving downwardly in the region where they come together, a distributor box to distribute material to be briquetted between the rollers above said region where they come together, the distributor box having an upper part and also having a bottom plate on which the material is supported, the bottom plate being vibratable to and from the upper part, means to vibrate said plate upwardly and downwardly, the distributor box having an outlet for the material leading to said region, a rotary stirrer above the plate, effective to force the material to the outlet, the upper part of the box having a number of substantially vertical fastening plates attached thereto, substantially vertical fastening plates carrying the bottom plate, resilient compressible means between and connecting respective fastening plates of the upper part with respective fastening plates of the bottom plate whereby the bottom plate is resiliently suspended from the upper part, the means to vibrate said bottom plate being an electromagnetic vibrator suspended from the underside of the plate, the vibrator having an ampli tude of oscillation of not more than about 1.3 mm.

7. The apparatus defined in claim 1, the means to vibrate the device having a rating suficient to oscillate the device at least about 1000 oscillations per minute, with an amplitude of about 0.5 mm. to about 1.3 mm.

8. in a press for briquetting ore, coal, and similar materials, pressing means comprising two press rollers, briquette-forming depressions on said pressing means, the

aware?) roller surfaces turning about their axes in opposite directions, the rollers moving downwardly where they come together, a distributor box to distribute material to be briquetted between the rollers above the region where they come together, the distributor box having an upper part and also having a bottom plate on which the material is supported, the bottom plate being resiliently mounted for vertical oscillation to and from the upper part, said plate being provided with an opening and conduit means directed towards said region to carry the material thereto, stirring means mounted above said plate for driving said material to said opening, and means to vibrate said plate upwardly and downwardly with a force and acceleration sufiicient to de-aerate and compact said material, the means to vibrate the bottom plate being an electromagnetic vibrator suspended from the underside of the plate and having a' rating suflicient to vibrate the plate at least about 1000 oscillations per minute, with an amplitude of about 0.5 mm. to about 1.3 mm.

9. In a' press for 'briquetting'ore, coal, and similar materials, pressing means comprising two press rollers, biquette-forming depressions on said pressing means, the rollers turning about their axes in opposite directions, the roller surfaces moving downwardly where they come together, a distributor box to distribute material to be briquetted between the rollers above the region where they come together, the distributor box having an upper part and also having a bottom plate on which the material is supported, the bottom plate being resiliently mounted for oscillation vibratable to and from the upper part, said plate being provided with an opening and conduit means directed towards said region to carry the material thereto, stirring means mounted above said plate for driving said material to said opening, and means to vibrate said plate upwardly and downwardly, the upper part of the box having a number of substantially vertical fastening plates attached thereto, substantially vertical fastening plates carrying the bottom plate, resilient compressible means between and connecting respective fastening plates of the upper part with respective fastening plates'of the bottom plate.

' 10. The apparatus defined in claim 9 in which .the resilient compressible means are rubber bodies.

11. In a roller briquetting press for briquetting of ore, coal, and similar materials, and equipped with a pair of rollers provided with briquette-forming depressions, said rollers being rotatable in mutually opposite directions, the combination with said rollers of distributing container means having a feeding mechanism for delivering the material to be briquetted to said rollers, said distributing container means being mounted above said rollers and having an upper portion and a horizontal bottom plate, resilient mounting means elastically joining said bottom plate to said upper portion for relative mo tion of said plate in a vertical direction, said plate being provided with an opening located above said rollers for supplying the material thereto disposed above said rollers, said feeding mechanism comprising a device mounted above said bottom plate for driving the material to said opening, an oscillation generator connected with said distributing container means for exciting said bottom plate to oscillate at a frequency in excess of about 1000 oscillations per minute essentially in a vertical direction at a force and acceleration sufiicient for de-airing and pree; densifying said material in bulk form before said material is supplied to said rollers, and means for attaching said oscillation generator to said bottom plate for uniformly distributing said oscillations over the entire surface of said bottom plate.

12. In a roller briquetting press according to claim 11, said opening in said bottom plate being located above the middle region where said rollers come together, said resilient mounting means comprising a resilient connection between said bottom plate and said. distributing container means, said oscillation generator being fixcdlyconnected with said bottom plate, said bottom plate comprising a planar plate having a rim widening conically in the upward direction, the lower end of said rim surrounding the fixed portion of said distributing container means.

13. In a roller briquetting press according to claim 12, said upper portion of said distributing container means being fixedly mounted to said press, a first metal plate fastened to said bottom plate of said feeding mechanism, a second metal plate fastened to said 'fixed portion of said distributing container means, said resilient mounting means comprising at least three rubber buffers uniformly distributed around the periphery of said bottom and con-. nected between said first and second metal plates for oscillatingly mounting said bottom of said feeding mechanism to the balance of said distributing container means.

14. In a briquetting press according to claim 11, said oscillation generator being centrally located beneath the bottom of said distributing container means, and comprising an electromagnetic vibrator.

15. In a roller briquetting press according to claim 11, a vertical chute disposed beneath said opening in said bottom plate for passing said material to the space between said rollers, said chute having a rectangular cross section, one wall of said chute being pivotally mounted at its upper end, and control means linked to said one wall for tilting said one wall about its pivot in relation to the other walls of said chute for adjusting the rate of travel of the material throughsaid chute and thus adjusting the degree of pre-compaction thereof in said feeding mechanism.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 667,050 Zwoyer Jan. 29, 1901 806,876 Dennis Dec. 12, 1905 1,293,475 Komarek Feb. 4, 1919 1,928,372 Elton Sept. 26,1933 2,320,714 Boyle -51; June 1, 1943 2,501,135 Miller Mar. 21, 1950 2,541,899 Vlellman Feb; 13, 1951 2,568,332 Genovese Sept. 18, 1951 2,679,384 Livingston May 25, 1954 2,695,523 Oswalt Nov. 30, 1954 2,800,252 Wahl July 23, 1957 2,819,046 Jandris et al. Jan. 7, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 368,634 Germany Feb. 7, 1923 616,775 Germany Aug. 5, 1935 617,924 Germany Aug. 29, 1935 631,485 Germany June 20, 1936 565,031 Great Britain Oct. 24, 1944 

